Taco Fest disappointment in Santa Rosa reminiscent of failed Fyre Festival

You’ve purchased $128 worth of tickets, at $32 a pop, to attend the Santa Rosa Taco Fest. You’re expecting to find a slurry of taco trucks, craft beer, margaritas, face painting, music, dancing and more, as advertised.

When you get to the festival’s venue Saturday at Finley Park, you find no gated entry. You wait in line for an hour to pick up what your $32 admission price gives you — tokens for two tacos and one beer. Your two kids get the taco tokens because they aren’t 21. Tacos are on sale for $2 each. There are maybe 10 trucks there, but only one, El Roy’s, will accept the tokens, and the line is huge. You don’t see the salsa tasting, the margaritas or the crafts for kids. And there’s no DJ or dancing.

Wait, $32 for two tacos and a beer? You’re left with confusion and a desire for more tacos, as well as everything else promised that didn’t deliver at the event.

If you’re one of the people The Press Democrat spoke with, you either pass your tokens to someone in line and pay more to buy tacos from another truck, or you give up and leave.

“We want to support these vendors who want to promote the Latino culture,” said Juan Reyes of Santa Rosa, associate director of the Interfaith Shelter Network, who attended the event. “This ends up hurting them.”

Reyes, who said he learned of the event through Instagram, said he couldn’t find anyone to complain to at the time he was there. He said he wouldn’t label the handling of the event a scam, but “more of a misrepresentation, a money grab,” he said.

Other people on social media, some who contacted The Press Democrat, weren’t so forgiving. They were ticked off and trying to find a way to get at least part of their money back.

“The list of things that were promised that were not delivered is long … No desserts, no tequila tasting … No shade … No seating … This was a full-on scam and our community really deserved better,” @glorialovestacos wrote on Instagram.

The festival had all the proper permits issued by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, said Jeff Tibbets, deputy director of the recreation division. The city began getting angry calls and emails Monday complaining about the festival.

The permit applicant — listed as One Heart Events, and the name Eric Hartman — had to satisfy city requirements of a trash plan, insurance, proof of a liquor license, a list of vendors, portable toilets, an event diagram and a neighborhood notification letter. The permit issued was for a 1,000-plus people event. At least 500 people turned out, according to estimates of people who attended.

The organizer could not be reached for comment by phone or email. The event’s Facebook page has been wiped of much of what was promised to consumers at the time, as well as any contact information.

“They advertised all these craft beers. They just had three choices out of a truck and they were pre-filling the glasses and it was like 90 degrees outside,” said Nicole Jones, who attended with her husband, Matthew, and friends. She’s seeking a refund through her credit card company. “You were just standing in the sun in the middle of Finley Park. I’ve tried to contact them (the organizers) through email and Instagram. I haven’t gotten anyone to respond to me. I’m super angry about this.”

Jones said women holding a bachelorette party came to have margaritas to celebrate the bride and had to call someone to bring some tequila to the park.

Some even paid $80 a piece for VIP tickets, which were found to earn ticket holders nothing special.

Patricio Estupiñan, a VIP ticket holder, started the hashtag #tacoFYREfest on Reddit “to help the scandal gain some steam,” he said.

For Estupiñan, the scene Saturday in Santa Rosa was reminiscent of the failed 2017 Fyre Festival in the Bahamas founded by Billy McFarland, now a convicted felon. It was billed as an exclusive, luxury music experience that was further hyped by Hollywood elite and social media influencers. But when people showed up, it was anything but glamorous. And there was no music.

Saturday’s live music was a mariachi group of three that followed people around in the park to get tips, according to Jennifer Camara.

Nick Gordon, who runs the Redwood Food Taxi and other food-delivery services in Sonoma County said he’d been to a lot of festivals — chili cook-offs, Ribs for Kids, the seafood festival in Bodega Bay — “and I’ve never seen anything so disorganized.”

But there’s no city requirement that vendors must deliver exactly what they promise, and they don’t have to provide any information on past events, but the department will be conducting a post-event meeting, Tibbets said.

That will consist of discussing the event management, however, and documenting “points of concern” for future reference.

“We’ve been notified of some of the people who say the event didn’t turn out the way they expected it,” he said. “Obviously it wasn’t a city-organized or sponsored event. But in this case, this is something that we want to address.”

Tibbets said the permit applicant will now be flagged in case they apply to return.

The city doesn’t issue fines, he said, but his department can cite the organizer and collect damages for failing to put trash cans throughout the park — they just dropped them off in one spot — and not picking up the fencing for the restricted alcohol area until Monday.

That may not be enough to satisfy @glorialovestacos, however.

“Tacos are my life … This I take really personal that someone would ruin the food that I love so much and make it impossible for someone else to throw a taco festival ever again,” she wrote.

You can reach Staff Writer Kathleen Coates at kathleen.coates@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5209.